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There was a time when the Big Ten would never -- ever -- announce anything of magnitude in the immediate prelude to Ohio State-Michigan. It didn't want anything taking away from what long has been the conference's promotional centerpiece. It was a game so important, a rivalry so intense that there wasn't any room on the grand stage for mundane trivialities.

But now, well, let's just say the conference needed to generate a little buzz this week.

It has been kicked around plenty this season for its historically wretched football, so it decided to kick back.

But did it have to be this?

There's something not quite right about adding two universities whose only contributions are the television-rich markets in New York City-New Jersey and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. The Big Ten went for the money grab because, for as loudly as everyone laughs at its football product, just as many genuflect in reverence over the widening scale and profitability of commissioner Jim Delany's greatest creation -- the Big Ten Network.

The Big Ten's official existence as an athletic conference ended with the additions of Maryland and Rutgers and the realization that expansion likely isn't stopping there.

It's now a television network, that's all.

"Next on Jersey Snore, Indiana at Rutgers ... followed by an intriguing mystery for the detectives on CSI: College Park. Maryland football fans are missing and left no forwarding address ... and the evening concludes an embarrassing catfight over who confiscated the last Ho-Ho at the training table on The Real Offensive Linemen of Nebraska."

TV is the only avenue where the Big Ten remains nationally relevant. It's the last opportunity available to flex whatever muscle remains on the bone. It has the largest number of living alums among the larger conferences. And Delany is cocky enough to think -- or maybe delusional is a more apt description -- that he can somehow jump-start a historically lackluster interest in college football in New York and the nation's capital.

The timing of the announcement reflects the conference's football free fall. It's a slap in the face to "The Game."

The Buckeyes have a shot of finishing 12-0 and perhaps winning the Associated Press national championship, should the luck of the Irish finally flip against USC on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Who cares? Ohio State is ineligible for the BCS.

The Wolverines' slim chances of winning the Legends Division berth in the Big Ten championship game could die the day before kickoff in Columbus should the heavily favored Cornhuskers finish off a mud-dragging Iowa team Friday.

They're basically playing for pride.

You remember pride, don't you?

That was once a measurable commodity in college sports. But those days are done, with conferences poaching each other's members. But whereas the SEC expands with an eye on competitive quality and television quantity, the Big Ten only can look at growth from the latter.

If you can't sit at the top of the national football rankings, at least you can win the national television ratings.